


Puppy Love

by citizen101erased



Series: pff bingo 2019 [6]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Demonic Possession, Demonic activity, Demons, Dogs, Halloween, Horror, M/M, Paranormal, implied animal death, puppy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-22 19:49:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21082145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/citizen101erased/pseuds/citizen101erased
Summary: Phil goes to the dog show. He comes back with more than just fun stories and instagram selfies. Dan is pretending not to be pleased, but honestly, he can’t say no to those cute puppy eyes.But then, strange things start to happen…Written for the Phandom Fic Fest Bingo 2019. Prompts: dog, nightmare, suspense/thriller





	Puppy Love

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve been watching Haunted on Netflix. It’s not very good, but it did kind of inspire this fic, so at least there’s that I guess. 
> 
> I don’t think I’ve ever written horror before, and it’s not a genre I enjoy outside of Halloween season, so I hope I did alright! Also I wrote this whole thing in one go, which uh, wow? Go me. 
> 
> Thanks as always to [obsessivelymoody](https://obsessivelymoody.tumblr.com) for betaing! 
> 
> **TRIGGER WARNINGS:** demonic activity, implied kinda-possession, implied animal deaths.

Dan has been painting for the last couple of hours, and he’s honestly quite proud of what he’s managed. The walls and ceiling of the living room are now finally all white, after having been covered by yellowing paper and brown nicotine patches. All doors and windows are open, and Dan can feel the new life coming into the house they bought. 

This is _ their _ house now, and he couldn’t be more proud. After ten whole years together, and everything they’ve been through, through better and worse, richer and poorer, sickness and health, here they are. Still together, still in love, stronger than ever, and finally in a house that’s completely theirs. No landlords to stop them from doing what they want to the house, no neighbours to complain about Dan screeching while filming gaming videos in the middle of the night, or about Phil luring pigeons into their garden. 

Instead, they have space, both within and without the house. After they’re done fixing this up, they’re going to start thinking about more pets, finally get a dog, maybe at some point even have a child. 

He’s still running the paint brush over the last, stubborn bit of brown patch still trying to show through the several layers of white paint when the front door opens, and he hears all the telltale signs of Phil coming in—those telltale signs including: the door opening, then a bonk, immediately followed by a yelp, some shuffling, and finally footsteps as Phil manages to take off his shoes and go into the house.

But there’s something different this time. He hears something else there. It sounds suspiciously like...dog paws? 

Then there’s a quick, high-pitched bark followed by a much louder ‘shhhh’. Dan crosses his arms as he waits for Phil-and-the-mystery-dog to come into the living room. 

Phil comes into the room, holding a bundle of cloth that wriggles around suspiciously. 

“Hi, babe!” he beams at Dan. 

Dan frowns at him. “Don’t ‘hi babe’ me, you rat.” 

Phil’s face falls. “What’d I do?” he says, his voice immediately filled with anxiety. 

“You brought a dog home from that event.” 

“I did!” Phil exclaims excitedly as the bundle wriggles so hard he can hardly hold on to it, so he pulls aside some of the cloth to reveal a puppy. 

Dan can’t even pretend to be angry after looking at it. It’s adorable. He can’t tell what breed it is, might not even be one specific thing, really, but it’s black with massive, dark eyes. When Phil puts it down on the ground, Dan sees the puppy has a slightly crooked tail with a white tip. Said tail is wagging so hard the puppy keeps losing his balance while he tries to wag his way over to Dan. 

“Hello, little one!” Dan squeals in his special cute-tiny-animals-voice as he sits down on the floor. He reaches his hands out and the puppy nuzzles up to them excitedly before crawling into his lap. 

Phil is leaning against the doorpost, smiling at them. “I knew you’d like each other,” he says. 

“I thought you couldn’t adopt dogs there?” Dan says as he scratches the puppy behind the ear. 

“So did I. But this one was wandering around all alone. We checked with the organizers, and nobody reported a puppy missing. So we also checked with the vets, and since there’s no chip and no one came to claim him, I asked if I could bring him home. There was just something about him that made me want him immediately.” 

“You know you should’ve talked to me first, right?” 

“Yes. But look at him! How could you say no to that cute face,” Phil says, smiling as he sits down next to Dan and starts petting the puppy. 

The puppy sighs happily as he settles into Dan’s lap and falls asleep, and Dan definitely isn’t angry anymore. 

And just like that, they became a family of three. 

The puppy, now dubbed Eric, has to move into the new house immediately since he can’t live at the old apartment, so Dan and Phil also move into the new house.

The first days are great. Sure, there’s a lot of cleaning up they have to do as the puppy isn’t trained yet. And with all the moving going on, Eric ends up spending a lot of time exploring the garden. He seems to love running around there, though, so for a while everything seems great. 

Still. Dan notices some strange things happening sometimes. 

For example, he could swear he saw Eric’s eyes light up red a couple of times. He’s written it off as late-night anxiety, or maybe just reflections from something, but something about it doesn’t sit quite right with him. 

And then there’s the pigeons. 

There were quite a lot of pigeons in the garden when they first came to look here. It was even one of the major points that Dan was conflicted on when it came to buying the house, because how were they going to get rid of them now? But Phil, with all this usual enthusiasm for animals, loved them and fed them and even talked about building a dove shelter eventually. 

The pigeons were gone now. The whole lot of them, just disappeared seemingly overnight. There are a lot of feathers in the garden though. That night, in their new bed in their new room, they talk about it. Phil worries a neighbourhood cat might have gotten to them. Dan worries it might have been Eric. 

It suddenly turns into an argument when Phil starts shouting. Dan is too taken aback to say anything. Sure, they’ve had their share of arguments throughout the years, like any other couple. That’s nothing new. But Phil doesn’t shout. That just doesn’t happen. 

Except now, before Dan knows what’s going on, Phil has left to go sleep on the couch, with Eric cradled in his arms, leaving Dan with a slowly cooling spot in a large bed and a large, empty room. 

Dan’s ten years on YouTube rolls around, but instead of celebrating by quietly cuddling up together on the couch as they watch some anime, Dan spends the day partially by chasing Eric, partially by DIY-ing in the house, and partially by being terrified out of his wits. 

Phil is out, buying more snacks for Eric, because “he’s a growing puppy and needs his snacks.” 

Dan shakes his head as he tries to take out the old kitchen cupboards by himself. They’re ugly, fake-wood cupboards from the seventies that have rotted through from water leakage. The leak has already been fixed by a professional, and a crew is coming in soon to put the new kitchen in, but the room has to be empty before that. 

He’s just starting on the next cupboard, taking up his screwdriver as he balances precariously on a ladder, when he hears something fall over in the living room. The kitchen is around a corner to the living room, so he can’t see what happens there. 

He curses Eric while he steps off the ladder and goes to check it out, screwdriver still in hand for some reason he doesn’t know himself. 

In the living room, everything is calm and quiet. Eric is asleep on the sofa, all curled up and breathing so slowly Dan wonders for a moment if he’s still alive. He looks big, a lot bigger than when he first got here just a couple of days ago. Dan knows puppies grow fast, but surely they don’t more than double in size in just 4 days? 

Shrugging it off for now, Dan stands still, looking around the room. Everything seems to be right where it belongs, nothing’s toppled over or lying on the floor. 

Then the same sound comes from the kitchen, as if something small just fell on the floor. 

“What the-” Dan murmurs to himself, turning around to check the kitchen. 

Nothing there. But as soon as he walks back into the kitchen, the sound of things falling comes from the living room again. 

“Right,” Dan says to himself after he takes a very deep breath. “Time for a break.” 

He puts the screwdriver down and, pointedly ignoring everything, puts on his shoes and jacket and walks out the front door. 

He texts Phil from the Starbucks he’s found himself in after wandering around for an hour. 

_hey there materino. im at a starbucks, diy was driving me mad. come have coffee w me?_

**Did you leave Eric at home alone? **

_yeah hell be fine its just for a bit _

_phil? _

_phil come on_

There’s no more answers. Dan sighs, frowning at his phone. He sends out a quick tweet about his anniversary, grabs his coat, and slowly walks back to the house, alone. 

By the time their own ten year anniversary arrives, things have taken a turn for the worse. 

Martyn and Cornelia arrive at the house to look after Eric for the evening, but Phil seems incredibly reluctant to leave Eric behind. 

“Come on, Phil. It’s our anniversary, we’ve planned this a month ago,” Dan says, throwing pleading looks at Martyn in the hopes of getting some help. But Martyn is looking at Eric, who is currently climbing all over Cornelia in the hopes of getting more cuddles. 

“That dog looked a lot smaller in your photos,” he says. 

“Yeah, he’s grown. A lot.” Dan says. “Look, Phil, Eric’s going to be fine. He’s already becoming friends with Cornelia. And it’s just for a couple of hours, we’ll be back before you know it.” 

Phil stares at Dan, his face expressionless but a strange look in his eyes. Then he blinks, and some of the strangeness disappears. 

“Yes, I guess you’re right.” Wordlessly, he walks to the door, looking over his shoulder at Eric several times. Eric stares back at him as he and Dan leave. 

They go out for dinner at a fancy restaurant, followed by a turn in the London Eye for nostalgia’s sake. But Phil is quiet, and fidgeting more than usual. After a painfully quiet ride in the Eye that’s only broken once by Phil asking ‘how do you think Eric is doing?’, Dan gives up. 

“Let’s just go home, Phil.” 

They open the door to find the house empty. Eric is in his bed, even though he barely fits in it anymore. Phil dumps his jacket on the floor and runs inside without taking off his shoes. He sits down in front of Eric and immediately starts petting him and cooing at him. Dan can hear something along the lines of ‘I’m so sorry they left you alone, but I’m here now’. 

There’s a note on the table, hastily scribbled in Cornelia’s usually tidy handwriting. 

_ Boys, there is something incredibly wrong with this dog. Please don’t keep him. We can’t stay here anymore tonight, and we’re not coming back until you get rid of this dog. _

The closer they get to Halloween, the stranger things get. 

Eric keeps growing at abnormal rates. He’s now easily the size of a Tibetan Mastiff, despite having fit in Dan’s palm just over a week before. 

When they walk him outside, he behaves perfectly. Yet somehow, all other dogs they come across stop and either try to hide or curl up, whimpering. One or two have run away, dragging their owners with them. 

The sounds of things falling over has escalated. It’s no longer just in one other room that Dan is not in. It now happens in all the rooms, all the time. Sometimes things actually fall. His moon mirror is broken after falling down despite being held up by multiple screws. He regularly finds books scattered on the floor. 

Dan is glad they haven’t moved Norman over yet, or he’d have been worried about the tank breaking. 

Halloween arrives, and Dan is now fully convinced he’s in an actual horror movie. He’s spending more time—alone—at the old apartment, leaving Phil behind in the new house with Eric. 

Out of all the weird things, including the red glowing eyes, objects flying around, and—since yesterday—the strange, evil laughter coming from somewhere unknown, Phil’s change in behaviour is definitely the strangest and most concerning. 

He completely ignores Dan now, putting all his time and energy into Eric. Phil has stopped sleeping, almost stopped eating. 

When Dan comes in on Halloween, the entire house is dark. None of the lights work, but it doesn’t matter, because there’s an ominous red glow coming from the living room. It flickers slightly, almost as if there’s a fire. 

He slowly moves towards the living room without taking off his jacket and shoes. 

Eric is standing in the middle of the room. He’s now so big he towers over Dan. His eyes are glowing as before, but this time there’s a red light pulsing through the room. 

He doesn’t see Phil anywhere, until he moves further into the room and sees a figure lying on the floor, unmoving. He immediately starts to run over, all his thoughts centered on Phil, when a massive, black paw steps in front of him, blocking the way and obscuring Phil from Dan’s view. 

“Please, Eric, let me through,” Dan begs, tears now running down his cheeks. He doesn’t even notice them. “Please, he needs help.” 

The laughing sound gets louder until it’s all Dan can hear, booming into his skull like nothing Dan has ever heard before. He clutches his head as he falls on his knees, sobbing. 

This has to be a nightmare. It just has to be. There’s no way there’s really a massive hellhound in his living room, sapping life energy from Phil. 

He can feel himself start to topple forward, and his forehead hits the floor. The laughing sound and the red flashing are overwhelming, he can’t see, he can’t hear. 

Behind him, out of his sight, a digital clock turns to 00:00 before flickering in a string of strange symbols and then shutting off completely. 

Suddenly, there’s the sound of fabric tearing apart. The laughter stops, leaving a ringing in Dan’s ears. Dan looks up, and a tall, red figure with horns, hooves and a tail steps through. The figure whistles, and Eric turns and runs to him, wagging his tail. 

“Thanks for finding my pet and taking care of him, boys,” a deep, inhuman voice says, his voice going directly into Dan’s head without speaking anything out loud. 

“It really is too bad I can’t thank you properly, as I’ll never see you two again. Though if you’re willing to come over to our side, you’re always welcome.” The figure smirks and steps back. He suddenly turns around, and says: “Oh, before I forget! You’ll both wake up tomorrow thinking all this was just a bad nightmare.” The veil closes, and all is quiet. 

Until Dan says, very loudly, “What in the actual fuck just happened.” 

Phil groans, and Dan scrambles over to him. 

“Dan?” Phil says, opening his eyes only a little bit. His entire body is still slack. “Wha- what happened?” 

“I don’t know, Phil. I’m just glad you’re still here.” 

“Where’s Eric?” 

Dan’s heart skips a beat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re ill, you must be hallucinating.” 

“No. No, there was a puppy. We named him Eric. I brought him with me yesterday after the dog event.” 

“...yesterday?” 

Phil’s eyes open a bit more now as he starts to wake up. “Yeah, yesterday. Why?” 

“Phil. It’s been two weeks.” 

“What? No! I don’t believe you.” 

“That’s fine. We’ll talk about it tomorrow. Let’s just get you something to eat and then go to sleep, huh? I’m sure we’ll both feel better in the morning. Oh, and Phil? Let’s never get a dog. Ever.” 

**Author's Note:**

> -Come say hi to me on [Tumblr! ](https://throwing-roses-into-the-abyss.tumblr.com)
> 
> -We lived in a fun, totally-not-haunted house when I was a teenager, so the ‘hearing things falling over in other rooms’ is a thing that happened to me when I was 16 and home alone one day, though thankfully (???) it wasn’t caused by hellhound activity. Although I had the morning off from school, I was still there 3 hours early that day. Truly the epitome of ‘fuck this shit I’m out’. We did already have a puppy at the time iirc, but I honestly have no idea how she reacted, I was too busy panicking.


End file.
